Harry jumped onto his broom after having summoned it with his wand, the only thing that he had been allowed to bring with him to use in the first challenge of the Tri-Wizard Tournament.
However there was a twist to this one. The prefix 'tri' had no meaning, as there were four competitors from three magical schools; Durmstrang, Beaubatons and Hogwarts. The competitors were Cedric Diggory, Victor Krum, Fleur Delacour and himself.
Harry recounted the memory in his head.
The three schools had all gathered in the Great Hall for the selection, all of the entrants eagerly looking at The Goblet of Fire. Harry had been sitting at Gryffindor table in a group of people that made up a majority of the crowd; Hogwarts students who were too young to enter.
The chosen students' names were coughed out of The Goblet of Fire, its flame changing colour each time it did so. As each person's name had been drawn, they had gone off to a room that lead on from The Great Hall, and Harry looked on, as Professor Dumbledore spoke of how much of an honour it was to those who had been chosen, in hunger, a hunger for equality, to be able to compete along with those who had been chosen, when Theo Goblet of Fire's flame changed colour once again.
Harry thought that he had been one of the first people to have noticed the unexpected changed. Nobody was looking at the goblet anymore, afterall the goblet was only supposed to choose three names, which it had done, hence the name 'Tri-Wizard Tournament.'
However he knew that he wasn't the first to have noticed. As he looked back towards Professor Dumbledore, his eyes ran past Snape, who Harry noticed had a curious look on his face. Harry followed his glare; which lead to The Goblet of Fire.
For a few more seconds Harry and Snape were the only ones who knew and Dumbledore kept speaking to attentive audience. Then gradually, people started to notice, and then eventually Dumbledore noticed that a majority of his audience wasn't listening anymore. He turned to see what everyone was looking at and by that point everybody had forgotten that Dumbledore had even been speaking.
When Dumbledore noticed, all emotion left his face, and possibly his soul; never, never, had The Goblet of Fire produced more than three names. As the brightness of the flame intensified, Dumbledore raised his hands to protect his eyes, and at the same time took the deepest breath of his long and well lived life. Through gaps in his fingers, Dumbledore saw a ragged piece of parchment regurgitate from the goblet. He positioned his fingers so that he could grab it without burning his fingers on the singeing edges.
He caught the parchment as planned and turned it over to see the name on the other side. Instantly, his face showed a mixture of shock and anger.
'Harry Potter!' he had bellowed.
Nobody applauded for Harry as they had the other contestants, and Harry thought it had something to do with the wave of jealousy over the group.
'Harry Potter!' the old Professor bellowed once more. 'Get up here this instance!'
Hermione, Ron and everybody else around him stared at him, and then Hermione gave him an almighty shove in the sides and Harry came to his senses and stood up. He stumbled and tripped over feet as he tried to get to the front of The Great Hall. As he walked past some people, people in his own house, he heard them whisper that he was a cheat or that it was a scam.
When he arrived at The Goblet of Fire he expected Dumbledore to start either yelling, or whispering sternly to him, but instead all he did was jab his finger as hard as the old man could in the direction that the other contestants had headed in. the only contact he made was to stare into his eyes, a look of sadness and sympathy reflecting back at Harry.
Harry was bought back into the present by the Hungarian Hornback blowing it's fire onto the back of his broom and he went off to find the golden egg.
X X X X X X
At the same time, Dumbledore paced in circles in his office, disappointed that he could not be watching Harry compete in the first challenge.
'That is hardly a priority,' Severus Snape muttered from a dark, shadowy corner.
'Severus, what have I told you about using Legillimacy against me?'
'You told me, Professor, only to do so in an emergency.'
'Exactly. Now how is this space in time deemed necessary for you to delve into my mind?'
'Albus, you cannot deny that the circumstances are most definitely very extreme! The Minister of Magic, The Minister of Magic, has been brutally murdered on Hogwarts grounds in a muggle fashion! Not to mention that we are hosting the first Tri-Wizard Tournament in over a century! Also there's the fact that Harry Potter, the same person that The Dark Lord wants dead at any cost, is flying around somewhere on his broom being chased by a Hungarian Horntail looking for a golden egg! The same egg which has no doubt been tampered with by a Death Eater! And Merlin only knows what will happen when the poor boy touches it!'
Dumbledore, who had remained silent during the whole outburst, replied by saying, 'First of all, I would prefer that if you will not call him Voldemort, that you call him You-Know-Who, not The Dark Lord, because as far as I am aware, nobody in this room,' he said motioning to the other Hogwarts teachers, 'worship the man. Secondly, all of what you said is true, there is no way that I can deny that, but honestly, what use it to panic? We will only use valuable energy that could prove more than valuable at a later date.'
Severus was about to reply, but at that moment, several people from the Ministry and The Order of the Phoenix in Dumbledore's office via the marble fireplace, and then crowding around his hardwood desk.
The first three people to arrive wore long, black, tight robes and their eyes were covered by a pair of silver, reflective sunglasses, something that one didn't often see in the wizarding world. The next few people to arrive were Remus, Tonks and Sirius.
The three men wearing sunglasses went up to Dumbledore first, and the one that walked in the middle, who was clearly in charge, spoke to Dumbledore.
'Headmaster, I will get straight to the point. My name is Agent Smith, this is Agent Cirrus and this is Agent King. We are from a part of the Ministry who are in fact the muggle Prime Minister's body guards. He is aware that we are wizards, so we are the best protection he can get. We are three of only five people outside this room that know of the Minister's death. We have come here today to notify you of the fact that the muggle Prime Minister is life-threateningly ill. The top muggle doctors in the country were called in to examine him and there was no reason they could find to explain why he is dying slowly. It was at that point that we decided to do a magical scan spell. We found that a spell and a potion had been used against him so that meant that the only time it could have been done was when he was asleep, the only time that we are not with him. The results were that a Cruciatus spell and a strong strength draining potion had been used against him. The two combined have caused him to fall apart. Headmaster, the truth of the matter is that the two occurrences are related. It is no coincidence that one Minister died and another is dying.'
'Yes,' Dumbledore replied, 'there is no doubt in my mind that the attacks are related. The soon to be serial killer has tried too hard to conceal the relation. A wizard being killed with muggle methods and a muggle slowly dying of magic.
It has been timed to perfection. The magical world is on a high with the Tri-Wizard Tournament, the wizarding world is on a high and peoples' guards are down because of it. We need an Acting Minister of Magic, but what else can we do?'
'Actually, that's what else we are here about; an Acting Minister,' Agent Cirrus said. 'The Minister wrote this letter that was given to us to bring to you. He said that you should only read it if he died whilst he was still Minister.'
Cirrus handed Dumbledore an unmarked envelope that had a green tinge. Dumbledore opened it with his wrinkled hand and proceeded to read it.
Dear Professor Dumbledore,
If you are reading this I have died whilst retaining the position of The Minister of Magic.
I know as well as you do that in the past we have had our disagreements, but on countless occasions we have also worked together, the results of such occasions being great.
I beg you not to put this letter down without reading it, but instead to continue.
To be the Minister of Magic has a few necessary perquisites. The tasks that a Minister has to complete are stressful at the best of times. In the past, countless Ministers have perished from a thing that I'm sure you know of. It's what the muggles call 'heart attack'. However there were also countless ministers who coped perfectly under the pressure.
To be the Minister of Magic also takes a great deal of a sense of responsibility; you literally have control over who can cast magic in this country. Ultimately, you choose whether or not people spend the rest of their lives in Azkaban. If something goes horribly wrong, which, as I'm sure you know, happens often, you have to figure it out. You may not fix the problem directly, but you do need to organise and approve every last thing that every department does.
If you are popular, the wizarding community looks up to you with respect, they look to you for advice, and therefore a sense of wisdom is also useful, a quality that I myself lack.
I think that you would make an excellent Minister. I know that you have been offered the position countless times before, and on each occasion you have politely declined. I also know that if you had not declined your last opportunity, I would never have had any need to write this letter.
I'm sure that the whole of the wizarding community who are on the Light Side when it comes to now seemingly stable but forever uncertain war against You-Know-Who would agree with me when I say that you would quite easily make the best Minister in magical history. And as for those on the Dark Side, you would be a force to be reckoned with.
Albus, if you have not already realised, the whole point of this letter so far has been to has been to lead up to this one question, easily the most important question that I will ever ask; Albus, will you, for the sake of the whole wizarding world, step in to be the Acting Minister of Magic until an election can be held?
The letter ended abruptly, the now ex-Minister hadn't signed off, but instead had finished with a single, but ever so important question.
Dumbledore stared at the question for a few more seconds, and then, in an effort to stall and have more time to think, he read the letter out loud.
'Well?' Professor McGonagall asked after a few more seconds. 'Are you going to take the position?'
'I was first offered the job of Minister of Magic many years ago, I was only about 53 I think. My immediate response was no, that I wasn't the political type. From that day forward, I promised myself that no matter what, I would only take up a political position if it was an emergency, like now. So yes, I accept and say yes, I will be the Acting Minister of Magic.'
'Well that's all well and good,' Sirius said, 'but what about Harry? How will we protect him?'
'I do not see any need to change Harry's protection,' Dumbledore replied.
'Well there is a need,' Lupin responded. 'Harry, and any other person under such security for that matter, is only safe when an official Minister is in office.'
'Each day the Minister gives permission for all long term safety charms to stay active and therefore keep Harry safe,' Tonks said. 'And only an official Minister can do it.'
'It will take at least a month to d what needs to be done to appoint a Minister so we must start today. I will be appointed Minister with no election and then when all is safe I shall resign and an election will take place. Until I am Minister Harry isn't safe. Sirius, Remus and Nymphadora; you are to stay with Harry at all times. You and Harry will be given private quarters to live in at Hogwarts and you may only leave the castle for lessons that I deem necessary and for him to compete in the Tr-Wizard Tournament.'
'Would it not be wise,' Agent King said, 'to pull Potter out of the tournament?'
'No, it would not. The Goblet of Fire picked him. It is a very powerful object that is made nearly entirely of magic and to interfere with what it wants is unwise, it would only make matters worse. No, Harry must continue competing in the tournament until it is over, or he dies.
(A/N) Ok guys, what do you think? It's only my second fanfic so I'm eager for reviews!
I'm happy to answer any questions about anything to the best of my ability.
If I don't get many reviews over the next week I will take a hint, delete the story and get some new ideas!
Thanks for reading guys!
- Joe